Razor blades are generally made of a ceramic or steel substrate covered by a hard coating. An outer layer of an organic material is also often deposited on the hard coating, to reduce friction of the razor blade on the skin when shaving. This organic layer is often a PTFE material.
The hard coating usually primarily acts as a strengthening coating, in order to strengthen the blade and improve its life expectancy. Some particular materials providing a very good strength property, like for example chromium-platinum alloys, have been deposited in the past by placing the razor blade edges in front of a chromium-platinum alloy sputtering target and sputtering the target in order to deposit chromium-platinum on the razor blade edge. Yet, the proportions of chromium and platinum in the deposited coating are fixed by the proportions of chromium and platinum in the target.